Real wages ‘lower than in 2008’
AVERAGE WORKER HERE £200 A WEEK BETTER OFF IF THE PRE-CRASH WAGES GROWTH HAD CONTINUED, CLAIMS TUC
PAY packets are worth less in the city and many areas of the county than in 2008, according to analysis by the TUC.
The study of official statistics showed that 16 years on from the financial crash wages are lower – in real terms – in 22 of the East Midlands’ 34 local authorities for which data is available.
These include Leicester, Charnwood, Melton, North West Leicesterhire and Oadby and Wigston.
Across the region as whole, average weekly pay is still £24 a week lower – in real terms - than in 2008 after more than decade of stagnation.
In every East Midlands local authority, real wages are far below where they would be if they had grown at the pre-2008 growth rate, the TUC said.
The union body estimated that if wage growth had been sustained at previous rates, the average East Midlands worker would be £200 a week better off.
The TUC described the findings as a “damning indictment” on the Conservatives’ economic record.
It said millions of UK workers are currently enduring the longest pay squeeze in more than 200 years.
A spokesman said: “Not since Napoleonic times has there been such a sustained period of wage stagnation.
“The analysis shows that even in areas where real wages have recovered, pay growth is way below historic trends.
“The UK has one of the worst records among OECD nations for pay growth since the financial crisis. “When the Conservatives took office in 2010, a wage recovery was already under way following the financial crisis.
“However, the wage recovery went into reverse when the Conservatives hit the UK with their austerity programme, including real-terms pay cuts across the public sector.”
TUC regional secretary Lee Barron said: “Hard work should pay for everyone. But people are still worse off than in 2008 in the vast majority of the East Midlands.
“In every corner of the region pay growth is way below historic trends. “This is a damning indictment of the Conservatives’ economic record.
“This is the same government that’s given us the most dramatic fall in living standards on record. “The Tories’ failure to grow the economy – and their scorched-earth austerity policies – has decimated family budgets.
“Just imagine how much better off people would be if they had an extra £200 a week in their pay packets – and how much more prosperous the country would be.
“It doesn’t have to be this way. We can create a new era of decent pay growth again where families’ living standards rise rather than falling backwards.
“But we need a new approach to get there.
“That means a proper plan to get the economy growing again by investing in UK industry, and a New Deal so that working people get a fair share of the wealth they create.”
We can create a new era of decent pay growth again where families’ living standards rise Lee Barron